The Associated Press reports (1, 2 below) that the FDA has just issued new warnings about two additional life-threatening risks induced by SSRI antidepressants: Serotonin Syndrome and Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension in newborn babies.
Two probing first rate investigative reports document how psychiatry’s treatments are shaped by "opinion leaders" whose professional recommendations are compromised by their substantial, largely undisclosed, financial ties to drug companies.
An investigative report in Mercury News (below) focuses on Stanford University department heads, associate deans and other leaders because “these are senior people who set the tone at the medical school and are role models for junior faculty members.”
When the Times refers to an experiment as "bold and controversial" the reporter is sanitizing the fact that the experiment is UNETHICAL—it violates medicine’s cardinal rule "First, do no harm."
Dr. Robert Spitzer, who has continued to play a central role in DSM revisions since 1980, claim he does not think a conflict of interest exists.
See list of APA Task Force on DSM-IV and DSM-IV Revised Text at: https://ahrp.org/cms/content/view/145/27/
All six healthy volunteers near death from catastrophic experiment–TGN1412.
OUT OF CONTROL: AIDS and the corruption of medical science, By Celia Farber in the current issue of Harper’s magazine.
“When Anita Louise Smith enrolled in an experimental drug trial in 2002 in Colorado, she had a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis but no symptoms and was looking to reduce the chances of being ravaged by the disease. Last year, she died at the age of 46 from an infection linked to the drug.”
"32% of the advertisements [in peer reviewed journals] misled readers regarding efficacy, 40% did not provide balanced descriptions of the side effects, and 44% could lead to improper prescribing if the physician did not use other sources of information regarding the drug."
Correction! A panel calling itself the Institute of Medicine as a Profession (IMP) is calling for a ban on the intermingling of industry and academic scholars and physicians. This is NOT affiliated with the Institute of Medicine (IOM)
In this era of commercially-driven medical research—whether conducted by industry or academia—it behooves journal editors—no matter how prestigious the authors submitting articles for publication—to at least follow Ronald Reagan’s dictum, “trust but verify.”
The Food and Drug Administration yesterday issued new guidelines that make it easier for scientists working in universities and small companies to test promising therapies in humans without matching the hefty spending of large drug companies.
